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Grin and Bear it - Trip Reports!

Such a good day. It just goes to show that decent company is really what CF is all about when it comes to it since the circumstances were ****. I can't believe I've left it so long in between Lives but hopefully Blackpool to see you lovely people again.

The Phallus man definitely wanted me, he spent enough time in my face...
 
Ian said:
Not saying goodbye to Pierre. See ya, Pierre.

Yeah sorry about that, my plan was to find out where my mate was and rejoin him for the last couple of hours, just so happens he was coming off the Skyride at Charlie as I rang him so had to leave, think I only said bye to delpiero and Ciall!

So yeah, I turned up and was greeted by furie which was just as well as I didn't really have a clue who anyone else was :lol: After watching workmen grafting on Smiler's shaft for a while we headed back to the main entrance where we were waiting for a few late arrivals (I soon understood why Sue gets her nickname ;))

After Smiler rage at the biscuits we fed the ducks, and laughed as one was kind of determined to eat a dropped Skittle from the Amazing Furie's Catch-Skittles-In-Mouth act - it struggled like mad and decided to just spit it out in the end, lol.

We headed straight over to Forbidden Valley when the majority where there and went straight on Nemesis... I sat next to minor_furie and had to ask his name and who he was as I didn't recognise him with all that hair! I pulled a frowner face for the ORP but it just looked like I had downs syndrome.

Blade was done by the majority of the group next, I kept up tradition and sat out of this, as I do with ALL swinging ships! Took a while for the Coaster...Force shouts to get going, then they turned into something else which I didn't quite understand haha.

The rest of the group were finally here and we headed straight for Sub-Terror. Shouty man was hilarious, particularly when shouting at Dan. I hate horror rides and despite the fact I knew what was going to happen I still **** myself. I seem to remember that 'rush out' was a lot scarier last time though, maybe it's because I knew what was going to happen.

We went on to Duel but before we did, we waited for Sue who went to the toilet and then came wandering out of the gift shop ten minutes later :lol: I've always loved Duel and I loved it even more this time because the spinny-tunnel-of-sickness wasn't spinning - AWESOME. I spotted that the high score of the day was at 56,000 which led me to believe the majority of the other goon groups hadn't got round to Duel just yet ;) I only scored around 31,000. We were on the first train full of non-Ian faces, I didn't see the ORP until I bumped into Ciall and Radaxian later in the day, brilliant :lol:

We headed onto RMT, the queue looked horrendous but they had all the overflow closed off that was why. I was sat at the front of the group so kind of missed out on Safety Steve and the whole 'STEVE! ALAN!' situation. I did bump into silenthillXD and had to explain my joke about the fact he singed up, jokes are never as funny when you have to explain. He seemed like a nice lad though, never spoke to him much of the day after though.

The rapids weren't very rapidy apart from viciously bumping me side to side when we were 'parking' on the lift hill.

We then went to lunch, pizza & pasta buffet. Jordan whipped out her AP which got us all discount so thanks for that Jordan! I was sat next to DelPiero82 for a while so thought I better introduce myself, we have football in common (a rarity on this site!) so had a bit of a chat about that. Then Jordan shouted at us for having non-goon talk so soon turned talk into 'creds' haha. I had **** loads of pizza and pasta, with two slices of cucumber and a shaving of sliced carrot to make me feel a bit better :)

We met up with the group @ Th13teen but not without stopping to harrass a pirate on the way there - the katanga canyon music is also very annoying so I was pleased to get out of that area. There was a bit of a wait for burdens and some of us were going to ride Rita on single-rider but the queue was horrendous, mission aborted. We queued for Th13teen which was a longish queue but made quite enjoyable by typical CF behaviour and Haribo. I scared Manderrrr in the queue because I know how easily frightened she is.

We got on Th13teen, the ride ops were Marie and Ron, we were talking to Marie, then as the train was about to go Manda said "who's this one, its Ron! Cya later Ron... ahhhh Cya Later On!!" which amused her for the entirety of the lift hill. As the ride dropped, Ed slapped his hands on my shoulders which made me jump a little ;) some expletives where thrown in his direction afterwards.

We then had another burdenous wait as Th13teen broke. It was after this I left to rejoin my mate for a couple of hours, so apologies about the abrupt departure.

We rode Oblivion and I saw everyone in the queue as we were stacked on the brake run. We then rode Spinball which was the first time I've ever queued for it in the normal queue. The couple of games in there are fun, I'm easily amused.

As me and my friend were waiting for the other two, a group of CFer's passed us, I held up a ticket for someone to revalidate and it was like when a bunch of ducks attack each other for a slice of bread thrown to them on the pond - Ed was the victorious drake.

I then chatted with Ciall and Radaxian (who I now believe is Selena? :lol: ) which was when I saw the duel ORP. It was nice to meet 'Radaxian' for the first time too anyway, I assume you both got your lift to the train station OK? :)

As said in my earlier post, it was lovely to meet people again and I was quite overwhelmed at the amount of new people, hence my quietness, apologies about that, will make it up next time :)

And if anyone's using their revalidated ticket for Smiler next month at some point, holler!!!

Cheers CF :)
 
^ close, I'm Serena. Yes thanks, if anything, we got to the train station too early. Had to sit shivering on the platform for ages wondering why I chose to ride the log flume at lunch!

Alton Towers failing to open The Smiler on it's opening day could have spelled for a hugely disappointing trip; but I had so much fun on this live, that I completely forgot about the lack of The Smiler. (Until we went back to X Sector in the afternoon <//3 )

It was great counting all of the "50 RIDES AND ATTRACTIONS FOR YOU TO ENJOY" - the monorail toilets, the X Sector toilets (oooh, new and sparkly!), the Courtyard Tavern toilets...and best of all the cute little ducklings. Hope they had a feast on the crumbs of our crushed Smiler biscuits.

Met Furie for the first time, who is just as funny in real life as he is on here; plus a few other people who I have not met before, which was nice. My ride highlight was Nemesis Sub Terra, which proved to be a great ride to go on in a big group. The pre-show interaction with those incredibly shouty staff was hilarious, not to mention the Phalanx innuendo :lol:

Nemesis was running beautifully, that ride will never get old. Ian even managed to do his own ride take-over on Dual..
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Thirteen gets duller with every ride, I actually had more fun in the queue for it thanks to some eye-wateringly disgusting crisps and singing a medley of Simpsons songs with Ciall.

Finally faced my fear of the Skyride, which inevitably stopped when I was on board. Cheers to those who were on it with me, for shaking the car and talking about how we "would certainly die if the cable snapped" ("Or fall on a tree and be hunted down and killed by the National Trust" - Nic :lol: )

All in all, it was a fab day in the un-smiling face of adversity. Nice of Alton to extend the expiry date of Annual Passes to compensate; they sure are good at pushing dates around this year. Who knows, maybe The Smiler will even be open before my pass expires!

Thanks for the great company, already looking forward to the next Live :--D
 
First of my videos:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEFuv1vfpC4[/youtube]
(In HD on YouTube if you prefer).

I'll start work on the second after Sunday to include anyone who meets up with me then (I'm pretty short on footage actually :lol: )

Have fun :)
 
That video/idea is brilliant :p Can't believe I didn't once spot Pierre in his Boro jacket all day. And I did think when I was walking over to X-Sector that they probably wouldn't believe you (Furie) that I'd just strolled past and said hello.

Posting this pic here because I'm really not sure if it's the angle that's changed the perspective or there's something odd about the angle of the train. But it looks weird.

5d8myx.jpg
 
Ha, that video is brilliant! It was such a great day, nice meeting everyone finally, it's just a shame I had to leave early to get my bus. But yeah, I definitely need to go to Ghosterforce at Alton and Thorpe to see everyone again, especially if there is more magical drinks label fun!
 
Glad people like the video, and it's great to see some effort with people writing decent trip reports :)

Smithy said:
That video/idea is brilliant :p

I'm much better with ideas that actual production :lol:

Smithy said:

WTF? That's the oddest thing I've ever seen :lol:

"Traditional" CF-Live video is now available.

I had more ideas than footage :lol:

In HD on YouTube as always, not available in Germany...

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vETcR5n4CK0[/youtube]
 
ATTACKHAMMER said:
Awesome video! Lol at the biscuit stamping, The Hives went well with that!

Cheers Dan. I had a whole rack of songs ready to go with The Smiler, but then couldn't use them as it didn't bloody open :lol:

I thought about an intro with me rejecting tracks, but I always put too much junk around the videos :)

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Tapatalk 2
 
Should do a Midland Mayhem VI Part 2 Live, considering it didn't end there, plus we all have free return tickets, and The Smiler to grab!

Great video Furie, I like what you did with the music and the 'tick, tick, tick, boom' parts, Monorail was the best, like it actually crashed!

Heres a quick ride-by-ride trip report:

Nemesis: as always, never relents from lift hill to station. Runs at blackout inducing speeds in the rain (wet and hot track of course!) and the blood is still pinker than ever! It will always remain my favourite of the 'over 50 rides and attractions' and it never fails to surprise me every time, regardless of knowing every degree of the layout. 10/10

Blade: just your typical Pirate ship, has no umph compared to the Titanic Bounty at Drayton Manor. Was great fun riding with CF'ers though! 3/10

Sub-Terra: I asked Furie, "Is Sub-Terra a crap ride with good theming, or is the theming crap too?". His answer was "It's just crap". I went on with an open mind, I couldn't remember much of my last experience on it. Despite having my hair horrassed by the Guards, I really enjoyed it, the atmosphere was very intense, and the ride section whilst being Sub-Par, was rather fun. The finale just made up for the ride too! 7/10

Duel: Such a great little Haunted House ride! The whole shooting green dots is a bit of a gimmick, I find it takes away a lot from the whole 'creepy' feel of the house. But nevertheless, shooting green dots on bats foreheads is fun! 7/10

Runaway Mine Train: to me, this is the better version of Th13teen. It's themed correctly, it paces beautifully (I know its powered...), its generally a great fun ride! Its no Big Thunder Mountain, but its a great family ride for the park! 6/10

Congo River Rapids: I'm not a rapidy person, they're great filler rides for sure, but they're generally so boring. Especially when you have one with stereotypical bushes and trees theming, cave section and waterfalls of fail. Snoozefest of a Rapids ride. 3/10

Kebab Place: I had Chicken Tikka with mint sauce on a wrap, probably the best meal I've ever had at a Theme Park (hold that thought, the buffet at Siam Park City was unreal!). Was a bit dry, but still one of my favourites of the 'over 50 rides and attractions!' 8/10

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: I know it's a kids ride but it's just so ****. Theming was plastic and lifeless, those coloured balls were hanging on for their dear lives, not even a drop on the water section! Then the lift section was so 240p it was unbelievable. Tack. 1/10

Th13teen: the ride that gives Secret Weapons a bad name, why this had the longest queue of the day I never know. Again I rode with an open mind, but it's just so weak and slow I couldn't care about it being a Psychoaster or any of that pretentious ****. The drop and backwards section feels so gimmicky and lame, random launch into the station is full of what? I stick to my review and give Th13teen a solid 4/10

Hex: still messes with my head after all these years, has to be the best Mad House in the UK. Theming is phenomenal, story is interesting and the ride section is disorientating and epic. Love it. 8/10

Oblivion: my second favourite ride in the park, and it gives some amazing views of The Smiler! Not much to say about this one as everyone knows what Oblivion's like, just a huge drop into a steamy, damp hole! Great fun, had some in depth enthusiastic conversation with silenthillXD. 9/10

Had a great time, still think this is only Part 1 of 2 for this trip. Must get The Smiler!
 
Furie, the Goon video is amazing. I wet myself at the mating ritual part. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!
 
Kebab said:
Should do a Midland Mayhem VI Part 2 Live, considering it didn't end there, plus we all have free return tickets, and The Smiler to grab!

We shouldn't :p

GhosterForce will be where it continues ;)

Kebab said:
Great video Furie, I like what you did with the music and the 'tick, tick, tick, boom' parts

That awkward moment when you find yourself sitting on a Sunday morning doing maths to allow you to produce a crappy park video :lol:

Cheers for the decent length report Chris - pretty spot on. I have an odd soft-spot for Thirteen, but it's constantly sending mixed messages. It's a great little kiddy coaster, then the drop is a bit too "grown up" as is the theming. It just doesn't do either very well, but there's definitely a niche set of riders who love it. It's better than Corkscrew and more popular. I think it proves that Alton know their audiences better than enthusiasts. Their crap (Rita, Thirteen and Air) are the public faves with the longest queues :lol:

Kebab said:
Sub-Terra: I asked Furie, "Is Sub-Terra a crap ride with good theming, or is the theming crap too?". His answer was "It's just crap". I went on with an open mind, I couldn't remember much of my last experience on it. Despite having my hair harassed by the Guards, I really enjoyed it, the atmosphere was very intense, and the ride section whilst being Sub-Par, was rather fun. The finale just made up for the ride too! 7/10

I'll just quantify this a little. I do think it's crap, yes. I think it's entertaining crap though. It's "bat on a stick" crap, only the actual ride element is quite good. I actually really enjoy the tension of leaving the room, with the count down going on, sirens blaring, etc. Actually, I think it's bloody superb. The rest of it is just obvious, plastic, false and over-egged (hahaha). It's fun though and it's really good to go on with people who haven't been on the ride before so don't quite know what to expect. It's just crap as well, but it's typically British "missed the mark but somehow produced something entertaining anyway as long as you don't take it too seriously" :)

Ian said:
Furie, the Goon video is amazing. I wet myself at the mating ritual part. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant!

Cheers Ian, I was trying to work out what kind of video to do when I discovered it was all walking, goons and rides... so it suddenly became obvious :)
 
I love them both, Furie. The 50 rides and attractions slowly decreasing was brilliant, I remember thinking, when I saw the Smiler Q&A thing opened when it was closed they kept banging on about it, I was like 'I don't care, I have done them, I want number 51. :p
 
Just got round to watching the second video (content match prevents it from being viewed on mobiles!) - love it, sums up the day when the longest/most entertaining part was a static bottle label :lol:
 
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